A success fee means paying your grant writer a percentage of any funding you win, usually alongside a smaller fee up front. It sounds like a risk-free arrangement. In Australian grant work it is more complicated than that, and the complication is contractual rather than ethical.
What is actually charged
Australian firms that publish success-fee terms advertise between 5 and 15 per cent of the approved grant value, often with a modest upfront fee and sometimes with a cap. Other established firms refuse commission entirely and say so publicly, on the grounds that they control neither your pricing nor your project.
There is no Australian professional body rule prohibiting success fees in grant writing. The ethics codes usually cited on this point belong to American associations. So the real question is not whether it is allowed, but whether it works for you.
Why the money usually cannot come from the grant
This is the part that surprises people. Commonwealth grant guidelines routinely list the costs of preparing a grant application as ineligible expenditure, and some local councils name grant writer or grant assistance fees outright as something they will not fund.
Where guidelines are silent, that is not permission. Grant funds are provided for the funded project. If you agree to a success fee, assume you are paying it out of your own cash flow, in the same month the grant lands.
The incentives worth thinking about
- A percentage rewards the size of the grant, not the difficulty of the application.
- It encourages chasing programs that are easy to win rather than programs that fit your plans.
- It creates quiet pressure to inflate budgets, which experienced assessors notice.
- It can leave you with a bill on a project that is only marginally viable.
None of this makes success fees wrong. It does mean they suit some situations, particularly very large one-off applications, and suit ordinary small-business grants a great deal less well.
Settle these in writing first
- Exactly what percentage, calculated on what number, and is GST on top?
- Is there a cap?
- When does it fall due — on approval, or when funds actually land?
- What happens if the grant is only partially approved?
- What happens if you are unsuccessful, then reapply next round using the same material?
- Is the fee eligible expenditure under this program's guidelines, and who is confirming that in writing?
Whatever model you choose, agree the fee and its trigger before any drafting starts.